Bernard Laporte at the Mayol stadium in Toulon, March 23, 2024. CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP
The investigation targeting former French rugby boss Bernard Laporte for laundering aggravated tax fraud was dismissed on March 21 for lack of offense, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) declared on Wednesday April 24, confirming an information of Franceinfo.
The former president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) as well as former rugby players Jean-Pierre Rives and Denis Charvet were placed in police custody in January 2023 in connection with this case. The preliminary investigation into laundering of aggravated tax fraud began on September 21, 2020 following a report from Tracfin, the anti-money laundering unit of the Ministry of the Economy, recalled the PNF.
Read also | Bernard Laporte placed in police custody for several hours for “aggravated tax fraud laundering”
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The investigations, entrusted to the judicial financial investigation service, looked into the conditions in which Jean-Pierre Rives, who was also captain of the XV of France, “entered, through an intermediary company, the capital of the company operating the Saint-Julien-en-Genevois casino”in Haute-Savoie, detailed the flooring.
Suspicions focused on a donation of 3 million euros which allowed him to acquire a stake in this company, alongside Bernard Laporte and Denis Charvet. This sum, it was suspected, may not have been declared correctly to the tax authorities.
A donation declaration made
More, “March 6, 2023”less than two months after his custody, “Jean-Pierre Rives made a declaration of donation for his own account of 3 million euros to the tax administration then paid the corresponding duties of 1.8 million euros”reported the PNF. “In matters of donations, the tax is only due at the time of its declaration to the tax administration, with no time limit, so that no offense could be characterized”noted the PNF.
Fanny Colin, lawyer for Bernard Laporte, took note “with satisfaction” of the classification of the investigation and recalled “the importance of respecting the secrecy of the investigation, the violation of which in this case led to the media coverage of the police custody of Mr. Laporte, which it has now proven to be unjustified, thus interfering with the vote then in progress relating to the governance of the FFR ». The three police custody took place during a referendum by the FFR on the designation of Patrick Buisson, supported by Bernard Laporte, as delegate president of the Federation. The no had won.
In another case, Bernard Laporte and businessman Mohed Altrad, president of the Montpellier club, were sentenced to suspended prison sentences in Paris at the end of 2022 for a corruption pact linked in particular to the sponsorship of the XV jersey France. Both men appealed.
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